Refrigerator cabinet including improved liner mounting means



J. B. HORVAY Aug. 22, 1961 REFRIGERATOR CABINET INCLUDING IMPROVED LINER MOUNTING MEANS Filed July 17, 1959 INVENTOR :ruuus B. HORVAY H l S ATTORNEY 2,997,353 REFRIGERATOR CABINET INCLUDING IM- PROVED LINER MOUNTING MEANS Julius B. Horvay, Louisville, Ky., assiguor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed July 17, 1959, Ser. No. 827,875 4 Claims. (Cl. 312214) The present invention relates to refrigerator cabinets and particularly to household refrigerator cabinets including improved means for supporting in spaced relationship with the outer walls of the cabinet, adjacent liners defining storage compartments within the cabinet.

The usual household refrigerator includes an outer shell or case and one or more liners spaced from one another and from the outer shell, the spaces being filled with suitable heat insulating material. Since the liner or liners define food storage compartments which are maintained at temperatures substantially below ambient, any arrangement for supporting the liners within the outer shell and for maintaining the liners in spaced relationship with the shell should be such that the heat transfer between the liner and outer shells through the supporting means is at a minimum. It is also desirable that the mounting means be such that the same outer case or shell can be used in the manufacture of combination refrigerators containing two or more liners forming separate fresh food and freezer storage compartments or for standard refrigerators in which a single liner forms one relatively large storage compartment.

The present invention has as a primary object the provision of a strong low cost means for mounting liners within a refrigerator cabinet so that the heat transfer through the mounting means is held to a minimum.

A further object of the present invention is to provide means for supporting adjacent upper and lower liners in spaced relationship with the outer case of a refrigerator cabinet, which supporting means is anchored to the cabinet shell through the lower liner.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a liner support means which is separate from and removably supported on the outer shell or case of a refrigerator cabinet whereby the same cabinet shell can be employed in the manufacture of either single or dual compartment refrigerators.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds and the features of novelty which characterize the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming part of this specification.

In accomplishing the above objects, there is provided a refrigerator including upper and lower liners and a support means disposed on opposite sides of the upper liner between the liner and the shell to which is connected the lower portion of the upper liner and the upper portion of the lower liner. Each of the support means is of generally U-shaped cross section and includes a front wall having means for removably mounting the support means on a vertical flange adjacent the forward edge of the case or shell side wall. The opposed legs or side walls of the support means respectively contact the upper liner and the outer shell for maintaining the liner in spaced relationship with the shell. The upper liner as well as the lower liner are secured to the inner side wall of the support means while the outer side wall of the support means is in contact with but not secured to the shell thereby limiting the heat transfer between the support means and the shell.

For a better understanding of the invention reference 70 rates Patet cabinet including separate liners defining separate food storage compartments; and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view, partly in section, of a portion of the cabinet of FIG. 1 illustrating the liner supporting or mounting arrangement of the presen invention.

With reference to FIG. 1 of the drawing, there is provided a refrigerator including an outer shell 1 having an access opening at the front thereof and a door 2 for closing the access opening. An open front upper liner 3 and an open front lower liner 4 respectively define separate food storage compartments Sand 6 within the refrigerator cabinet. These liners are spaced from one another and from the outer shell 1, the intervening spaces being filled with suitable heat insulation (not shown). An interior door 7 is also provided for closing the open front or access opening to the upper compartment 5.

For the purpose of strengthening the outer wall or shell in the neighborhood of the access opening, there is provided a strengthening channel section formed by bending the material of the outer wall back upon itself and then inwardly to form a channel including a front flange l0 and a rear flange 11 spaced from one another and extending inwardly towards the liners 3 and 4-. It will be understood that this strengthening channel composed of the front and rear flanges :10 and 11 extends at least along the opposed side walls 12 of the cabinet and preferably also across the top wall thereof.

An outwardly extending flange 14 on the front edges of the side and bottom walls of the lower liner 4 and a similar flange portion 15 on the side and top walls of the upper liner 3 strengthen these members about the access openings thereto and also form bearing portions for a breaker strip 16. This strip, composed of a heat insulating material, bridges the space between the outer shell and the inner liners about the cabinet access opening. More specifically, the breaker strip 16 bridges the space between the liners and the front flange 10 on the outer shell.

As illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawing, the opposed top corners of the liner 3 are suitably secured by conventional means such as bolts 18 to reinforcing braces 19 connected to the rear flange 11 of the outer shell 1. The lower front corners of the lower compartment 6 are similarly connected and supported on braces 20 secured to adjacent portions of the inner flange 1 1.

In accordance with the present invention, in order to support the top portion of the lower liner 4 and the bottom portion of the upper liner 3 in spaced relation with the cabinet shell 1, there are provided on each side of the liner 3 and between the liner and the shell side walls 12 vertically extending support members 21 of generally U-shaped cross section arranged behind the rear flange 11. The support members 21 each include a front Wall 22 that is in contact with the adjacent rear flange 11 and opposed side walls 23 and 24 respectively engaging a forward extending portion of the liner portion 25 of the liner 3 and the side walls 12 of the shell. The support members 21 are preferably composed of sheet metal or the like for strength and since any metal piece bridging or partially bridging the space between the liners and the outer shell of a refrigerator cabinet provides a heat leakage path, an important feature of the present invention is the manner in which these support members 21 are arranged and supported in order to minimize such heat leakage. To this end, each support member 21 is fixedly secured only to the liners 3 and 4. Specifically, the liner 3 is secured to the inner wall 23 of a support member by means of the screws 28 while the lower liner 4 has welded or otherwise secured thereto brackets 29 which in turn are fastened by means of screws 30 to the inner wall 23 of the adjacent support member 21. The outer side Walls or flanges 24 of the support members are merely in contact with the side walls 12 of the shell with the result that heat leakage from this portion of the support members to the outer shell is much less than if they were actually welded or otherwise fixedly secured to the shell.

For the purpose of supporting the support members 21 in the desired position during assembly of the refrigerator and in order to prevent rearward movement of the adjacent portions of the liners 3 and 4-, the front or Web portion 22 of each support member is provided with a series of hooks 31 struck from this portion of the support member. These hooks 31 are adapted to extend through cooperating square or rectangular apertures 32 provided in the inner or rear flange 11 and to slip downwardly over the forward face of this flange when the support members are placed in operative position relative to the flanges 11.

During assembly of the refrigerator cabinet, the support members 21 provided on opposite sides of the liner 3 are hooked onto the flanges 11 and connected to the lower liner 4- so that when the liner 4 is secured to the brackets or braces 20, the support members 21 are prevented from moving upwardly to a point in which the hooks 31 might become disengaged from the flange 11. Thus the lower liner 4- secured to the outer case or shell at its bottom corners and secured also to the support members 21 serves to anchor the support members 21 on the flange 11 so that no bolts, screws or other direct fastening means need to be employed for this purpose. Thus heat leakage between the front walls 22 of the support members and the flanges 11 is kept to a minimum by the elimination of any bolts, spot welds or other fastening means which would provide direct heat flow paths to the shell.

By this arrangement, it will be seen that by providing spaced apertures 32 along the flange 11, the same supporting means can also be employed for positioning the lower and bottom portion of the upper liner 3 and the upper portion of the lower liner 4 regardless of the relative sizes of these two liners. In other words the same outer case will accommodate without modification any of a number of combinations of liners of various sizes. Likewise, it will be seen that the same outer case can also be employed for a single compartment refrigerator in which the support member 21 is not needed since a single liner corresponding, for example, to the liner 4 will extend from the top to the bottom of the case and be secured directly to the upper and lower braces 19 and 20.

A further advantage of the present invention is derived from the fact that the low cost and low heat leakage support member 21 can be used to support the side walls of the liner 3 along substantial lengths thereof so that the forward portion of the liner 3 which presents the greatest heat leakage problems can be composed of a plastic material or the like having a lower heat conductivity than metals. More specifically, as will be seen from FIG. 2 of the drawing, the rear wall portions 36 of the liner 3 are composed of metal for strengthening purposes and to obtain maximum heat conductivity between an evaporator structure (not shown) in heat exchnge relationship with the walls 36 of the compartment and the contents of the compartment 5. The entire forward portion of the liner 3, that is, the portions thereof surrounding the access opening thereto are composed of plastic material in the form of a breaker frame 37 shaped along the side edges thereof to form the flanges for the mounting of the breaker strip 16 and the forwardly extending flange portions 38 for securing the liner 3 to the supports 21. Additionally, this breaker frame is shaped along the bottom side thereof to form a ledge 39 extending below the door 7, a bridging portion 40 for bridging the space between. the upper liner 3 and the lower liner 4 and an inwardly extending flange portion 41 extending into the liner 4 and overlapping the forward edge of the top wall 42 forming part of the liner 4. By this arrangement it will be seen that once the lower liner 4 has been placed.

4 within the shell 1 and secured tothe supporting member 21 and to the braces 20, the upper liner 3 is so designed that it can be slipped into the shell through the access opening to the cabinet and thereupon secured by the screws 28 and the fastening means 18 respectively to the supporting members 21 and to the braces 19. Thereafter, the mounting of the breaker strip 16 completely seals the openings between the liners and the shell and also hides the mounting means employed to secure the upper and lower liners to the outer shell.

While there has been shown a particular embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular construction shown and described and it is intended by the appended claims to cover all modifications Within the spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A refrigerator cabinet having an access opening at the front thereof and comprising an outer shell and upper and lower open faced inner liners spaced from one another and from said shell and forming separate storage compartments within said cabinet, said outer shell including side walls having inwardly extending flanges adjacent the front edges thereof, means for supporting said liners on said outer shell comprising a support of U-shaped cross section extending vertically between said upper liner and one side wall of said shell, said support having a front wall in contact with said flange, a first side Wall in contact with said shell side wall, and a second side wall secured to said upper liner, means securing an upper portion of said lower liner to said support, means for removably fastening said support to said flange comprising a slot in said flange and a hook member on said support front wall extending through said slot and downwardly along the opposite side of said flange, and means for securing the lower part of said lower liner to said shell for anchoring said support in hooked engagement with said flange.

2. A refrigerator cabinet having an access opening at the front thereof and comprising an outer shell and upper and lower open faced inner liners spaced from one another and from said shell and forming separate storage compartments within said cabinet, said outer shell including side walls having inwardly extending flanges adjacent the front edges thereof and means for supporting said liners on said outer shell comprising a support U- shaped cross section extending vertically between said upper liner and one side wall of said shell, said support having front wall in contact with said flange, a first side wall in cont act with said shell side wall, and a second side wall secured to said upper liner, means for removably fastening said support to said flange comprising a slot in said flange and a hook member on said support front wall extending through said slot and downwardly along the opposite side of said flange, and means securing said lower liner to said support and to said shell for maintaining said support in engagement with said flange.

3. A refrigerator cabinet having an across opening at the front thereof and comprising. an outer shell and upper and lower open faced inner liners spaced from one another and from said shell and forming separate storage compartments within said cabinet, said outer shell including side walls having inwardly extending flanges adjacent the front edges thereof and means for supporting said 7 liners on said outer shell comprising supports of U-shaped cross section extending vertically on each side of said upper liner and between said upper liner and the side walls of said shell, each of said supports having a front wall in contact with said flange, a first side wall in contact with the adjacent side wall of said shell and a second side wall secured to said upper liner, means for remova'bly fastening said support to said flange comprising a slot in said flange and a hook member on said support front wall extending through said slot and downwardly along the opposite side of said flange, and means for securing 5 said lower liner to said support and to said shell for maintaining said support in engagement with said flange. 4. A refrigerator cabinet having an access opening at the front thereof and comprising an outer shell including opposed side walls each having an inwardly extending 5 flange adjacent the front edge thereof, spaced open-front upper and lower liners disposed within said shell defining upper and lower storage compartments, and support means disposed on opposite sides of said upper liner for supporting the lower portion of said upper liner and the upper portion of said lower liner in spaced relation with said outer shell side Walls, each of said support means comprising a front wall and spaced side walls, said front 6 wall and said flange including cooperating hooked and slot means for removably supporting said support means on said flange, and means securing one side wall of each said support means to said upper and lower liners, the other side wall of each of said support means 'being in contact with but not secured to the adjacent outer shell side wall.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 2,639,592 Philipp May 26, 1953 2,648,584 Morton Aug. 11, 1953 2,758,741 Saunders Aug. 14, 1956 2,793,781 Morton May 28, 1957 

